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The Ottawa Sunday Sun, December 5th: Welcome back to the jungle Guns N’ Roses fire up old hits for live double-disc compilation Live Era ’87-’93 3 Suns Out of 5 By John Sakamoto - Sun Media THE 22 PERFORMANCES here constitute nothing less than a prolonged, retroactive farewell to a by-gone era. It’s a grand gesture that this two-CD set embraces in everything from its title to its cover, a pastiche of old concert posters that makes explicit the set’s status as an official artifact. That said, virtually everything here will remind you just how potent a live act GN’R could be during its heyday. From a blistering version of Welcome To The Jungle, to Slash’s ringing intro to Sweet Child O’ Mine, these performances capture a band at the peak of its powers. Only the mawkish, faux Elton John ballad November Rain, and the infantile musical tantrum Used To Love Her (“but I had to kill her”) forcefully betray the excesses of the age in which they were created. Still, there’s an undeniably elegiac air about this collection that constantly reminds you these recordings belong to the past. Here’s hoping GN’R 2.0 can extend its reputation into the future. |
